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Tuesday, 5 April 2011

Placket Pocket ~tutorial~

Have you joined the Goodie Bag Swap over on Flickr yet? I have and I can't wait to get started!

I learned a very neat way how to make a placket pocket the other day, and thought it would be nice to share. It's not difficult to do and it's very useful for bag making as well as dressmaking. Let's get started shall we?

~Placket Pocket Tutorial~

You will need a piece of outer fabric and two pieces of lining fabric for the placket and pocket and some fusible web. (I used smaller scraps of canvas for this tute but ideally you would make this pocket in your bag lining or exterior)

Fuse a strip of fusible web to your exterior fabric, you don't have to measure exactly where it should be as long as you can eyeball it's position covering the entire placket position.
Measure from the top of your exterior fabric and draw a center line. I marked 3"from the top.

Next mark the center of your placket {my exterior fabric measures 8" so the center would be 4"} and make a small dot, measure from the center however large you want your pocket to be. Mine will be 5" so I measured 2 1/2" either side, mark the ends. Now draw a line 3/8" above and below your center line. Also mark 3/8" from the ends and draw a dart like so.

One placket drawn up one more to go. Fuse your webbing to your lining piece of fabric and draw the same placket {this step is not absolutely necessary as long as there's some fusible web on your lining you're good. It does help a little to have the drawing on both sides)

I placed the webbing at the top of my lining piece do not copy this! You'll see why in a minute.

Pin exterior and lining fabrics right sides together and sew your 3/8" lines from corner point to corner point ending and beginning with a a couple of backstitches.

Sew rigth up to your marked ending.

Next we're going to cut the center line through both layers of fabric up to the dart point.

Cut the dart only on the exterior fabric {teal}

Flip over to the other side and cut the center line straight through the {orange} lining fabric only!

Now you can pull your lining fabric through the opening.

Time to heat up that iron and do some pressing. First you want to press your corner darts out of the way.

I pulled the lining to the back for this step.

Next you want to press both top and bottom seams open, it's important to press your seams open and not to one side

After you've pressed your seams open you will press your lining fabric back like so.

So I'm keeping things real here, you will notice my top lining is coming up short (@£%&**$$£@@!!} ideally yours will be at least 1/2" longer or more. I managed to complete the next steps for this tute but trust me you need more lining on top!

This is what the front looks like after pressing.

It's already starting to look a lot like a pocket :-)

Place your lining fabric on the back. pin and flip to the side so you can sew both lining pieces to the placket seam you've just pressed open.

sorry it's not your eyes it's my shaky hands trying to hold the camera and show you where you'll be sewing!

Sew right next to your first seam. Repeat this for the bottom side. This is what it will look like when you have sewed both top and bottom seam to your lining pieces.

this is where my too short lining was causing troubles. Yours will be nicely secured on top.

Almost done! All that is left is to sew the sides of your pocket closed. You need to catch both your corner darts in your side seams so they're nice and secured. Again sew right next up to the line you drew.

You can now trim your pocket, press, stick an old wooden peg in your pocket, and there you go! Not that hard was it?

such a great idea! i <3 it. i'm starting to create some homemade bags out of clothes i no longer wear because of holes that i can't fix and i want a longer life out of them. definitely going to use this pattern!

just started following you! i'm new to blogger--check out my blog @ http://recycledideasandcrafts.blogspot.com/

Ooooh, that looks SO professional Leila! Thanks for sharing this. I will most definitely have a go although I am just off to see mum for a couple of weeks, so it will have to wait a little, but will print it out now!!!

I took a sewing class in high school. It was only half a year; the other half year was cooking. That is sum total of all the instruction I had before I started doing both on my own. Cooking came first, by 15 years, when I became vegetarian. Shortly after I started sewing, I was making a waistcoat with placket pockets. I could not figure out how to do it from the instructions with the pattern. I brought everything into the fabric store for help. I finished the waistcoat but never tried these pockets again. In the 25 years I have been sewing, this is the first time I have found a tutorial. Now I plan to make another waistcoat (the first one being too small for me now!). Thanks you, thank you. I cannot thank you enough.

Sew Out Loud QAL

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